ARGENTINA-LAND OWNER AND LARGE FARMER ADVISES ON RECESSION.
Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros said on Saturday that it is "conceivable" that Britain would have to resort to a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)."It’s conceivable," Soros said in an interview with The Times. "You have a problem that the banking system is bigger than the economy... so for Britain to absorb it alone would really pile up the debt."
Soros said that "if the banking system continued to collapse, it’s (an IMF bailout) a possibility but it’s not a likelihood."
The man who made one billion dollars on short-selling sterling on ’Black Wednesday’ in 1992 described the current recession as a "once-in-a-lifetime event", particularly in Britain.
"This is a crisis unlike any other. It’s a total collapse of the financial system with tremendous implications for everyday life.
"On previous occasions when you had a crisis that was threatening the system the authorities intervened and did whatever was necessary to protect the system. This time they failed."
He said he feared the problem in Britain, with its huge financial and banking interests, could be greater than in the United States.
"American memory is seared by the Depression, the German memory is seared by hyperinflation but Britain has a pretty serious problem in many ways worse than America because the financial sector looms bigger and the overvaluation of real estate is bigger than in America."
Soros said the G20 summit in London next week was the world’s last chance to avert economic disaster, but he was not optimistic of a breakthrough in efforts to spur the global economy into recovery.
"The odds would favour that it fails because there are such differences of opinion. It’s difficult enough to get it right in your own country let alone with 20 governments coming together, but if it’s a failure I think then the global financial and trading system falls apart," he said.
"It’s really a make-or-break occasion. That’s why it’s so important."
Increasing IMF funding to allow it to intervene to help troubled economies is one of the main issues on the G20 agenda.
